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Working 10-hours-a-day at his convenience store, very conveniently located 200 yards from his house, Mr Sammons greets around 1,000 visitors a day during the summer. In the winter the number would drop to around 100 per day.

‘It was a great life for me and for my family,’ he said, adding it would be the same for anyone looking for a unique operation.

Visitors: Buford attracts people 'intrigued to find this place in the middle of nowhere near the top of a mountain'

Buford sits at an elevation of 8,000 feet and is the highest town along Interstate 80 between New York and California. The area offers impressive views of the Rocky Mountains but is prone to extreme winds and frigid temperatures — even by Wyoming standards.

Assets up for sale will include a gas
station and convenience store, a 1905 schoolhouse that has been used as
an office, a cabin, a garage, 10 acres of land, a three-bedroom home,
the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported.

One man town: Don Sammons, 60, is the only resident of Buford, Wyoming, but he denies feeling lonely

In store: He lives 8000ft up a cold mountain and runs an isolated petrol station and convenience store

It is a business opportunity that also offers a romantic lifestyle, said Amy Bates, chief marketing officer for Oklahoma City, Okla.-based Williams and Williams, which is handling the auction. Bidding will open at $100,000.

She added: ‘We’re going to have a variety of people attracted to this property, based on what it would mean to them.’

Buford was formed in 1866 as military outpost ‘Fort Sanders’, to protect workers building a railroad.

Short journey: Mr Sammons lives in a three-bedroom log cabin and has a commute of just 200 yards to work

It was once home to 2,000 people - most of them foreign migrant rail workers – a post office was built in 1880. The town was named Buford after Civil War general John Buford following the opening.

The town was sold to a private buyer by the railroad company in 1970 and Mr Sammons arrived with his wife ten years later after working in the moving business in California.

‘In winters the winds often blow at 70mph giving us a wind-chill factor of minus 20,' he said. 'Only the strong survive up here.

’It was in the middle of nowhere but we loved it immediately. I saw we could enjoy a slow pace of life with our horses, dogs and cats yet make a decent living from our gas station and convenience store.'